Portrait Professional

Mac|Life senior editor Susie Ochs already looks younger than her years, but Portrait Pro makes her look that much more dewy-skinned and doe-eyed.

Anthropics Technology’s Portrait Professional can best be described as “airbrushing for the rest of us.” This version, 8.0, runs only on Intel-based Macs, ostensibly to take advantage of the better processing power on newer Macs. Although unlike most graphics pros, the target users of this software are probably less concerned about speed and performance than they are about being able to mask wrinkles and blemishes, whiten coffee-stained teeth, and unmuss hair that’s been ruffled by the breeze.

If those types of cosmetic fixes are what you’re after—for a holiday card, say, a professional headshot, or even your Match.com photo—Portrait Professional is an easy-to-use means to achieve your desired end. In our tests, Portrait Professional worked best on shots that were high-resolution and well-lit to start with. Since it comes with built-in correction algorithms for adults, it’s not the app to use to enhance photos of babies or children. And when we tried “fixing” a low-resolution JPG image of Mac|Life online editor Roberto Baldwin—who had been made up to look as though he’d taken several punches to the face (long story)—the software couldn’t do much to correct his “black eye” or clean up the crusted “blood” on his upper lip. But when we fed it photos of Mac|Life senior editor Susie Ochs taken by our staff photographer, Portrait Professional did an impressive job smoothing her already nearly flawless skin, brightening her eyes, and adding a lustrous sheen to her hair.

We achieved these enhancements by following a simple wizard, then adjusting a few sliders in the Enhance Photo pane on the left side of the main window. The icing on the cake was the ability to whiten Susie’s teeth just a smidge by turning Show Mouth Controls on, then clicking the Mouth Controls button, at which point the Teeth Whiten slider appeared just below it. We especially liked how even though we ratcheted the slider all the way up to 100, the software didn’t make Susie look like a BriteSmile spokesmodel. The software scored realism points there, although we noticed that if you go too far with skin smoothing, wrinkle reduction, and spot removal, the subject can take on the look of a figure in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. Still, Portrait Professional makes enhancing head shots of adults a matter of a few mouse-clicks.